2017 Budget: Rural electrification gets N16bn

NATIONAL Rural Electrification Agency, NREA, has been allocated a total sum of N16,137,871,005 in the 2017 fiscal proposal of the Ministry of works,
Power and Housing. The list of projects which the fund is expected to be spent on include the rehabilitation, completion and construction of rural electrification projects in Benue state for which N274 million was allocated, monitoring and evaluation software for rural electrification projects, N40m, rehabilitation, completion and construction of electrification projects in Gombe State, N214m.

Solar street light
Other projects, according to the budget proposal, include the maintenance of solar street light at Asaba and environs in Delta State, which got N13m, rehabilitation, completion and construction of rural electrification projects in Edo State, N200m, rehabilitation, construction and completion of electrification scheme in Ondo State, N224m, rehabilitation, completion and construction of rural electrification scheme in two communities in Sokoto State, N280m.

Others are rehabilitation, completion and construction of rural electrification scheme in communities in Kano State, N253m, rehabilitation, completion and construction of rural electrification scheme in nine communities in Kaduna state, N247.5m, rehabilitation, completion and construction of electrification scheme of communities in Enugu state, N227.5m, and rehabilitation, completion and construction of rural electrification scheme in eight communities in Nasarawa State, N223m.

The rehabilitation, completion and construction of rural electrification projects in Rivers State got N240m, while that of Kano State was allocated N309m. N246m was allocated for similar scheme in communities in Jigawa State. The budget proposal also showed that rural electrification projects in Akwa Ibom will gulp N206m, while such projects will gulp N332m in Kogi state. In Borno State, such projects are expected to gulp N236m.

The Federal Government also included the sum of N2.2billion for payment of debts owed contractors that handled projects for the National Rural Electrification Agency across the country. It also set aside N2 billion for Rural Electrification Fund. Others include allocation of N44m for completion of the construction of the REA Zonal office in Osogbo, Osun State and N150m for Administration and Coordination. Rural electrification projects in Katsina are expected to gulp N303m, while such projects are to gulp N242m, N251m and N269m in Zamfara, Anambra, and Kebbi states, respectively.